Michael Bay talks TRANSFORMERS 2 and 3 at ShoWest

As most of you know, I’m in Las Vegas covering ShoWest 2009. For those not familiar with the convention, it’s where all the movie theater owners and operators get together to showcase the advances in projectors, concessions stands, and it’s also where a lot of the movie studios show their upcoming films to the people that are going to show them to audiences around the world. Basically, it’s where the big wigs come to wine and dine each other.

Anyway, tonight is the closing night and it’s where they give out all the awards. One of the winners was director Michael Bay as he won the Vanguard Award for Excellence in Filmmaking

So before getting to the stage, Michael came by the press room to answer a few questions. Since many of us were curious about 3-D and Transformers 3, those were the first few questions. Here are some of the highlights of the 7 minute press conference:

·Says he has nothing to do with The Birds remake

·Calls 3-D ‘a gimmick’

·Is not considering a 3-D Transformers 3

·Says when Paramount announced a 2011 release date for Transformers 3 they were playing ‘studio games’ and maybe using Transformers as a way of holding that date

·When I asked if he’s definitely doing Transformers 3, he said let’s wait and see how 2 does

·Talks about what’s better in Transformers Revenge of the Fallen

·Says the budget for second Transformers was 200 million and that he came in 4 million under budget. Said they are using extra money on more effects

·Talks about the IMAX footage – says it’s much easier to shoot than stereoscopic

·Explains what’s the most challenging of the special effects

·Talks about why ShoWest is important and explains why you need to see his films in a movie theater

And with that, you can watch what Michael had to say. I’m sorry the sound isn’t as good as it normally is, but he was far away from where I was sitting and nowhere near my microphone. Finally, if you missed my article of all the new movie posters at ShoWest click here, and here is my report after seeing footage from “Tron 2”! Also, I’m on Twitter.